11/1/03

Volleyball Preview: Iowa State

Complete Preview

Match 22: Texas (11-10, 6-6) at Iowa State (10-12, 2-9)
When: Sunday, Nov. 2 (1 p.m.)
Where: Hilton Coliseum (14,092) - Ames, Iowa
Series vs. Iowa State: Texas leads the all-time series 16-0, including a 7-0 mark on the road
Last meeting:  Texas defeated ISU, 3-0, on Sept. 17, 2003 in Gregory Gym
Streak: Texas has won all 16 meetings
Live Stats: Click here

LONGHORN QUICK HITS
•  Six of Texas' 10 losses have come at the hands of ranked teams: No. 16 Long Beach State (3-1, Aug. 30), No. 21 Notre Dame (3-0, Sept. 6), No. 9 UCLA (3-0, Sept. 12), No. 8 Nebraska (3-0, Sept. 20), No. 8 Kansas State (3-2, Oct. 15) and No. 21 Texas A&M (3-0, Oct. 24).
• Freshman middle blocker Brandy Magee has missed the last two matches and has taken a temporary leave of absence from the team to return home to deal with a family emergency.
• Texas has played five of its last eight matches on the road.
• Freshman setter Jenny Andrew has 99 kills and is second on the team in blocks with 56.
• Junior Bethany Howden has 195 kills in the last six matches (41 games, 4.76/game).  
• In the last seven matches, Texas has out-blocked its opponents 104.0 to 54.0.

THE LONGHORNS IN BRIEF
Texas enters Sunday's (Nov. 2) match with a 11-10 record overall and a 6-6 mark in Big 12 play.  Wednesday (Oct. 29), the Longhorns defeated No. 24 Missouri, 3-1, at UT's Gregory Gym.  Six of Texas' 10 losses have come at the hands of ranked teams.  Junior Bethany Howden (Austin, Texas/Westlake) leads the team with 337 kills (4.49/game).  Junior All-American Mira Topic (Kastela Kambelovac, Croatia/Vladimir Nazor) has 332 kills (4.43/game) and has also added 38 service aces.  Freshman middle blocker Brandy Magee (Mission Viejo, Calif./Capistrano Valley) tops the team in hitting percentage (.359) and blocks (70).  She has also added 160 kills.  Freshman setter Jenny Andrew (Houston, Texas/Kingwood) is the team's only setter and has 892 assists and is second on the team in blocks with 56, while sophomore defensive specialist Erin Larson (San Antonio, Texas/Ronald Reagan) has 260 digs to lead the team.  Overall, the team is out-hitting opponents, .248 to .218, and out-blocking its opponents, 194.0 to 129.5.

AGAINST THE CYCLONES
Texas has won all 16 meetings with Iowa State, dating back to 1984.  Since the Big 12 Conference began play in the 1996 season, the two teams have met 15 times, including seven times in Ames.  Texas has won all but two of the 16 matches in three games, including a 3-0 win earlier this season (Sept. 17 in Austin).  The other two matches - the 1996 and 1997 UT home matches - were won in four games.

LAST MEETING AGAINST IOWA STATE
Texas won its Big 12 Conference opener with a 3-0 victory over Iowa State on Wednesday, Sept. 17 in UT's Gregory Gym.  After stringing together runs to put the first and second games out of reach, Texas struggled in the third game, falling behind 29-24.  The Longhorns used a 8-1 run to close out the game, and went on to take the match on a Mira Topic kill.  Topic had a match-high 13 kills, while Kathy Hahn added eight.  Dariam Acevedo made her debut in a Longhorn uniform after returning from the World Under-20 Championships where she represented Puerto Rico.  She recorded five kills, two aces, nine digs and one block while starting all three games.

LAST TIME OUT
After splitting the first two games, Texas won the third and fourth to defeat No. 24 Missouri, 3-1, in Big 12 volleyball action on Wednesday night, Oct. 29, before 1,940 fans at Gregory Gym on UT's campus. Texas used games of 30-28, 21-30, 40-38 and 32-30 to defeat Missouri (16-5, 9-3 Big 12). The win extended the Longhorns' home-court winning streak to five while snapping a seven-match drought against the Tigers. Texas' junior All-American Mira Topic had her eighth double-double of the season, recording 25 kills and 18 digs, tying a season high. Meanwhile, junior Bethany Howden added 28 kills. The win was Texas' second-win over a ranked team this season.

MAGEE TAKEN LEAVE OF ABSENCE
Freshman middle blocker Brandy Magee has taken a temporary leave of absence from the team after her father Kevin was killed in an automobile accident on Thursday, Oct. 23.  She left the team that day to return to her family's home in Summit, Miss.

LINEUP SHUFFLING
The Longhorns have used an astonishing eight different lineups this season, including four separate versions in the last five matches.  Even more surprising is that the team has only NINE available players.  Because of numerous injuries, international obligations and non-team matters, the Texas coaching staff has resorted to frequent lineup maneuvering.  The following lineups have been used this season (with the number of games started):
1 - Andrew, Magee, Howden, Hahn, Curtis, Topic
1 - Andrew, Magee, Howden, Wilson, Topic, Larson
2 - Andrew, Howden, Hahn, Curtis, Wilson, Topic
2 - Andrew, Magee, Garvens, Hahn, Acevedo, Topic
2 - Andrew, Magee, Howden, Hahn, Wilson, Topic
3 - Andrew, Magee, Howden, Garvens, Wilson, Topic
4 - Andrew, Magee, Howden, Garvens, Hahn, Topic
6 - Andrew, Magee, Howden, Curtis, Wilson, Topic

HEAD COACH JERRITT ELLIOTT
Head coach Jerritt Elliott is in his third year at the helm of the Longhorns' volleyball program.  He has compiled a record of 51-33 (.607) - including an 11-10 record in 2003 - while at Texas and has guided the team to the second round of the 2001 and 2002 NCAA Tournaments.  Including his two-year stint as the interim head coach at Southern California, Elliott has a career record of 101-45 (.692) in five seasons as a head coach.

THEY'RE TALL IN TEXAS
According to research done at richkern.com, Texas has the third-tallest volleyball team in Division I, behind Louisville and Illinois.  The Longhorns, who as a team average just under 6-1, trail the Cardinals who average just over 6-1, and the Illini who average 6-1.  Pepperdine and Stanford round out the top five tallest teams.

ALL-AROUND ANDREW
As her recent triple-double attests, Jenny Andrew - the team's freshman setter - has become an all-around player for the Longhorns, getting involved in the match far beyond just setting the offense.  At 6-2, Andrew is also a force at the net, accumulating 56 blocks (0.75/game) and 104 kills (1.39/game).  Before her career performance against the KSU Wildcats on Oct. 15 (see below), Andrew proved to be the-"Aggie-killer" in the team's upset of its traditional rival No. 22 Texas A&M (Oct. 1).  That night, Andrew tied her then-career high of nine kills and set the team's top mark in blocks for the season with nine (two solo and seven assisted). Andrew has also added 105 digs on the season.  She has played every point this season and is the team's captain on the court during the match.

TRIPLE THREAT
Freshman setter Jenny Andrew recorded the team's first triple-double of the 2003 season on Oct. 15 when she collected 10 kills, 11 digs and 51 assists in Texas' 3-2 loss at No. 8 Kansas State.  She is the first Longhorn to record a triple-double since Jill Gremmel executed the feat as a junior in 1999.  On Nov. 20, 1999, Gremmel had 13 kills, 10 digs and 69 assists at Colorado.  Like Andrew, Gremmel was also the team's setter.

HOWDEN COMING ON STRONG
Bethany Howden has come on strong of late and has been Texas' offensive force since moving to the outside because of the season-ending injury to Dariam Acevedo.  In 11 matches since her positional move, Howden has racked up 195 kills in 41 games (4.76/game).  She is now leads the team in kills with 337, passing Mira Topic two matches ago. With Acevedo's injury affecting the Longhorns' lineup, Howden was moved to outside hitter from her natural middle blocker position.

TOPIC TAKES AIM AT THIRD
Mira Topic has moved quickly up Texas' career kills list since entering it in 10th place on Sept. 5. Topic currently sits in fourth place with 1,389 career kills and is now 19 kills away from third-place Diane Watson (1983-86) who had 1,408.  Against No. 8 Kansas State, Topic recorded 20 kills and moved past both Janine Gremmel (1988-91) in sixth place and Dawn Davenport (1985-88), the 1988 NCAA Player of the Year, who was in fifth.

HOWDEN JOINS TOP CLUB, TOO
Bethany Howden, like Mira Topic did earlier this season, has also moved into the Texas career kills list and currently sits in eighth place.  She currently has 1,219 career kills, moving past Katie Austin (1995-98) in ninth and Nikki Busch (1988-91), who was in eighth with 1,174, in the team's match at Kansas (Oct. 22).   She passed 10th-place Sharon Neugebauer (1981-84), who had 1,151, against Texas Tech on Oct. 18.  Howden is now 18 kills shy of Laura Neugebauer (1982-85), who is in seventh with 1,237 kills.